Costa Rica Tells Contras To Get Out

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA -- A Nicaraguan rebel leader on Wednesday said he would leave his exile in Costa Rica after receiving an ultimatum from the country`s president.

Alfredo Cesar, one of six members of the Nicaraguan Rebel Directorate, said he would leave the country where he has lived since 1982 to continue the ``legitimate armed struggle`` against the Sandinista government.

``I will go wherever the struggle demands,`` he said. ``Even if it means going to the mountains to fight with the peasants.``

President Oscar Arias sent letters to three members of the Nicaraguan Resistance Directorate on Tuesday asking them to either renounce the guerrilla war against the Sandinista government or leave Costa Rican territory.

The move to expel the three leaders, who have Costa Rican residancy, came just two before five Central American presidents will meet here to discuss a Central American peace accord signed last August by the same five nations -- Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras.

The Sandinista government has repeatedly said it cannot undertake the democratic reforms called for in the accord until its neighbors cut off aid to the Contras and kick the rebels out of their territories.

Costa Rican government sources said the decision to expel the Contra leaders was a move to force concessions from Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega at Friday`s summit.

In his letter to Cesar, Alfonso Robelo and Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, Arias said he had hoped the Contras would work for a non-military solution to the Nicaraguan conflict.

But instead, Arias said, ``with profound sadness I have learned of increasing military attacks by the Contras in Nicaragua. With profound sadness I have learned that some would pretend these acts of war are compatible with peace.``